AD Powell is what we call a mulatto militant. I believe she is currently operating under the the web handle “APGifts” as well. I enjoy reading her on-line ramblings because I can feel her dedication. I find her postings even when I’m not looking for them-on youtube ( she drops messages in my inbox), on HBCU newspaper sites, on ANY site with even the slightest reference to biracialism. It’s only a matter of time before she ends up gracing us with her presence. How am I sure AD Powell is APGifts? No one bombards the world wide web with propaganda in the particular style that AD does. It’s unique. It’s manic. It’s….tragic.

AD is a anti-Black White mulatto with a serious psychological handicap. You see, judging from her HS photo I’m guessing she is well over 40 years old, and probably has no idea that the mixed race identity isn’t nearly as contentious as it was when she was a child. Perhaps her White appearance (but her non-White social circumstance) fostered some bitterness that she has yet to resolve. Often, people who feel dis-empowered by their circumstances end up blaming others who are also socially dis-empowered for their condition. It makes it easier than having to look in the mirror, being nearly white (as she is) and saying to one’s self “If White people wanted me to be White, I WOULD be, and Black people would have no control over that”. It’s easier to blame Black people for “holding her back” rather than asking why White people haven’t “pulled her forward”.

Aside from being humorously tragic, AD may also be quite effective. When you blitz the internet with misconceptions, SOMEONE is bound to take what you’re saying as truth. And I believe this is the case. I will be addressing a few of her inaccuracies and *hypocrisies* on this blog. I have one to address now.

It’s interesting that — in the majority of the discussions which concern the allegation of “colorism” — seldom does one ever have a chance to hear about the issue from that of the perspective of the many light-complexioned people who have been discriminated against, harrassed by and even physically assualted by people who are of a dark-complexion.

Generally — in said discussions — one is only allowed to hear about those very rare
occasions when a light-complexioned person (often as a reactionary self-defense to having suffered a lifetime of unprovoked harassment by people who are of a
dark-complexion) verbally strikes out.

What is almost never discussed is the fact of the ‘silenced’ numerous cases of
lighter-complexioned people having suffered severely at the hands and words of people who were of a darker skin-complexion.

Presenting the issue of ‘Colorims’ only from the false perspective of “dark-skin=innocent victim” / “light-skin=guilty perpetrator”
is not only both unfair and false — but it, in and of itself, is an anti-‘light
skin’ / colorist double-standard.

In actuality, we hear this anti-light skinned/biracial story ALL THE TIME. This “dark people hate me narrative” is far more common (especially) in White dominated media than the other way around. It helps to perpetuate the “jelluz darkies/full blackies myth” (check out my earlier post on that). Rhianna, Rashida Jones, and P Diddy’s side piece Cassie have all given White media outlets their “Black rejection” stories. The majority of people who actually hear the complaints of darker Blacks are… Black people. I’m not going to get into who does it more…how would I really know? What I DO know is that it happens on BOTH sides, but one narrative receives FAR more exposure amongst non-Blacks than the other.

In addition, it should also be noted that the Urban Legend, of the so-called “light skinned Black” people (i.e. people who were of Mulatto or any other groups that were of a part-Black / Mixed-Race lineage) having practiced any sort of ‘Paper Bag’; ‘Blue Vein’; or ‘Fine Toothed Comb’ tests — is simply not in any way supported by any objective, verifiable historic record.

It IS correct that many of the blue vein stories are Folkloric. They are nearly impossible to verify. BUT that doesn’t mean they are untrue. Not to get philosophical, but historical records are known for their inaccuracies as well. That’s why we have so many historians. Even something documented can be debated. What we DO know (and what AD admits) is that some lighter Blacks and mulattos did cluster and form micro-communities (within Black communities). Keep in mind that the US is diverse, and there is no single narrative for any particular group of people. What happened in Louisiana probably didn’t happen in North Carolina.

Other racist, Mulatto-Bashing Urban Legends & Myths include the “Willie Lynch Letter’ Hoax (the letter has been repeated proven to have been total fraud); the “the majority of the ‘big house’ slave positions were given to the Mulatto chattel-slaves” lie (when history shows that most of these positions — ex. mammy, cook,driver, etc.– were reserved for the slaves that were full-Black); and the lie that “most of the Mulattoes were the offspring of the plantation Owners” (when,
in reality, what the historical record actually shows is that the overwhelming vast majority of the Mulatto-lineage chattel-slaves were the result of rapes by the White plantation Overseers — and were not the offspring of the plantation Owners).

It is true that the Willie Lynch Letter is a hoax. But isn’t it funny how AD likes to use the “proximal whiteness” argument when it fits her cause? I am dying to see these historical records. We can’t even come to an official agreement on the lineage of Jefferson’s Black descendants, and he paraded his mulatto mistress around town…can we really trust that a plantation owner would shame his family and document his transgressions for posterity???? What we DO know is that mulatto slaves were often freed upon the death of the slave owner (Jefferson’s case), and had access to resources that other slaves did NOT have. Why? Make of that what you will….

The truth of the matter — as shown by the historical record (i.e. articles, diaries, books, reports, interviews, etc.) is that– when many of the full-Black people realized the extent to which most Mixed-Race former slaves practiced ‘Endogamy’* (i.e. making the choice to marry someone who is a part of one’s ‘own group’),their outrage and feelings of rejection and jealousy caused
some of them to engage in the activity of Mulatto-Bashing / anti-Mulatto Rumor-Mongering — and it was often, this very activity that led to the spreading of these urban legends and myths as being “common knowledge” about the people and the communities that were of a Mulatto-lineage.

The practice of ‘Endogamy’ (i.e. marrying “one’s own kind”) was actually very common for people of any lineage or group (including that of Mulatto-lineage) and, generally, no issues were taken with it — until the late 1960’s / early 1970’s when the appearance of the very divisive ‘Black Power Movement’ (which had usurped the very successful ‘Civil Rights Movement’) suddenly began to target and falsely condemn the practice of ‘endogamy’ by people of Mulatto-lineage (and Mulatto-lineage, only) as being “racist” and “colorist” against the people who were of a full-Black lineage.]

This is a perfect example of AD’s hypocrisy (and humor).

1. How can someone of so-called mixed race be endogamous? Your very existence is the result of exogamy (by your definition)! Historically, people were RELIGIOUSLY and CULTURALLY endogamous. What DISTINCT culture did mulattoes have by which they could be culturally exclusive? None.

2. First you say that mulattoes never had “blue vein societies” or practices by which they excluded those who weren’t like them, THEN you say they practiced endogamy. How do you forge a distinct identity without differentiating between yourself and those who are not like you?***By creating social networks that practice color/feature based exclusion***. These blue vein societies may not have had actual addresses and club charters, but the social practice existed….YOU SAID IT YOURSELF.

Once the antebellum (chattel-slavery) era came to an end on the continental United States of America, and numerous communities became established, it then seemed that certain of the various full-Black people & families began to engage in a sharing of spurious “tales” wherein they (or someone they knew) had “heard about” a church, fraternity, sorority, social club, etc. that had both either been founded by or had a number of members who were individuals of a Mulatto-lineage and had also allegedly rejected a full-Black person solely for having had curly hair (rather than straight hair); and/or for having had brown skin (rather than tan, beige, or white skin); and/or for having had either non-visible or visibly ‘green’ arm veins (rather than ‘blue’ arm veins). And yet, no one ever questioned the fact that the very features a person was alleged to have been ‘rejected’ for having (ex. curly hair texture; brown skin coloring; and either non-visible or ‘visibly-green’ arm veins; etc.) were the very same features that were common to ‘the average’ person who was of a Mulatto-lineage (which would have meant that the Mulattoes would have then been the biggest ‘rejectees’ of such clubs — rather than the ‘rejectors’ at such clubs — and thus, would have also proven that these “clubs” simply and more than likely did not and had never actually existed in reality.)

LOL, this doesn’t prove anything that people who pay attention to mulatto movement rhetoric don’t already know: Many mulattos are racist and colorist, even against their own. If you acknowledge that “paper bag practice” would have alienated mulattoes, wouldn’t it have proportionally alienated MORE “full blacks”?

Mulattoism isn’t about “genetic accuracy”. It’s about racism and colorism. It’s about the APPEARANCE of racial ambiguity and difference, not your ancestry. That is why mulattoes in Brazil IN THE SAME FAMILY can have 5 different racial classifications. That is why Vanessa Williams will always be pined after and whined about by the multiracial movement, but Don Cheadle won’t. BOTH have White ancestors. One doesn’t “look” like they do.

It is often a surprise for people to learn that, in reality, there is actually No Such Thing As a “Light Skinned Black” person, at all. The term “Light Skinned Black” is really nothing more than a racist oxymoron that was created by White Supremacists in an effort to forcibly deny those Mixed-Race individuals, who are of a Multi-Generational Multiracially-Mixed (MGM-Mixed) Lineage, the right to be able to fully embrace and to also received public support in choosing to acknowledge the truth regarding their full ancestral heritage. The people who have been slapped with the false label and oxymoronic misnomer of “Light Skinned Black” person are simply Mixed-Race individuals — whose family have been continually Mixed-Race throughout their multiple generations.

Being a light skinned Black is no more of an oxymoron than being an olive-skinned or darker skinned White. Many mulatto militants like to use the same scientific racism that justifies the one drop rule, to justify their mulattoness. It is OKAY to identify as mixed race, but it is NOT OKAY to impose your racism or your personal identification on other. As AD Powell has mentioned, many people identified as mixed race even AT THE HEIGHT OF THE ONE DROP RULE. Some even identified as White, as they were close in appearance to “mediterranian Whites”, and decided to live as such. AP’s logic is an example of the double standards that are rampant in multiracial rhetoric. It also presupposes that people who are not dark skinned don’t/can’t identify with a Black social experience.

It’s important to critically examine a lot of the revisionist multiracial rhetoric that is saturating the internet. While some of it comes from a place of honest misconception, most of it is nothing more than racism repackaged.

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Great post! I have read some of this woman’s writings on various blogs. She seems to hate blacks more than whites. She blames blacks for trying to claim ‘mulattoes’ as being black. You point out many of the bizarre contradictions contained in her writing. You are right, she is the flip side of the white supremacist coin! I feel that she wants to be seen as white, but something is holding her back! Anyways, a good post!

Yeah this individual has spammed my YouTube in box on numerous occasions. What biracials/multiracials need to realize is this: if white people saw them as “white” they could pass no questions asked. If they want to be seen as ABB (anything but black) that is fine by me, but they cannot blame black people for one dropping them. The fact that they are seen as black has everything to do with the way whites see them. Whites out number blacks 5 to 1 in the US, if every black man, woman, and child were to abide by the one drop rule it would mean nothing if whites didnt abide by it too. The ball is in white people’s court, no questions asked, sure there are blacks that want to “claim” bi/multiracials but they mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

This woman is absolutely “demonic” in my opinion. She also lives in fear or being exposed from what I can tell. All she does is spew hatred against Blacks and quite frankly I’ll be pleased to see mulattos placed in a separate category so they can sail off. I find them more insidious and conniving than their ideological fathers hands down.

Admitting White racism, is the quickest way to show that you are not White! So why would a person …………wanting………to be accepted as White ever admit that Whites reject her and those like her? I have seen Whites ignore the Whitest skin and cultured biracials for straight from Asia Chinese, Japanese, etc kids who didn’t even speak English! Every biracial black and white child realizes that they could face racism because of their black hertiage! So quite naturally, the greater the White racism, the stronger the rejection and hate is geared towards their black side. Its almost like trying to get rid of something that is seen as holding you back!

OKay, I am a White female.
Sorry but I find it really peculiar that A.D.Powell would like to be viewed by the society as a “WHITE” female.
She clearly does not look like anything like a White female. She looks mixed, half and half…but nothing else.
I guess she feels that her looks are considered to be “ambiguous” but I will tell you that she is clearly mistaken. This must be all made up in her sad little mind. Why does she want to be White so bad? LOL how pathetic she is.
Yes, she is quite tragic.

I want to add something…
I wonder if A.D.Powell is aware that she is unable to join the KKK? I don’t think they will be accepting her membership anytime soon. Me personally, I find the KKK to be absolutely disgusting…but I am sure A.D.Powell finds them to be quite delightful and intelligent in her sad little mind.
I’ve read some of her posts on a website she seems to be moderating.
Shes an angry, pathetic piece of work.

Hello, my name is A.D.Powell…
I am a lesbian activist for my community. I hate all men, and anything that moves upon this earth. I hate any race that does not have the same exact admixture as mine…and I feel the blacks are responsible for the death of Johnny Carson.
I am better than everyone and anything on this earth, including sliced bread.

I recently came across the writings of A.D. Powell and she is tragic. Her ‘scholarship’ is limited to multi-racial people of African and Caucasian descent. She sounds more like a white, anti-black racist instead of an pro-activist on the behalf of multi-racial people. No one is stopping her from being the white woman she clearly longs to be recognized as. If they are, its certainly not Black people. They haven’t written any laws to dictate race in the Americas. Poor thing.

Thank you for writing this. I came across an A.D. Powell post while reading comments about Henry Louis Gates series on the African influence in Latin America. Her comments were truly disturbing and consequently I did more research. I was very confused about the anger directed towards afro-americans. This woman is nutty…. I hope she didn’t reproduce.

No problem. She is the most tragic of her kind indeed. AD has been on a very long, anti-black revisionist crusade. Although I have little time to post, I keep this blog up so that anyone wondering about her will know they aren’t the only witnesses to her tragic mulatto madness.

I don’t know what to think of the title of this blog…I’m of mixed-race and I’ve never been “tragic”. Most mixed-race people aren’t. I will say that the vast majority of mixed-race people don’t believe in the rhetoric mentioned above. Most mixedrace people, especially older ones, more closely culturally identify w/the Black community. I’m from a light-skinned Black mother and Italian-German father, and I respect both heritages, and am proud to culturally identify with my Blackness.
I repeat–people of mixed heritages who think like the mixed-race woman described, are from my perspective, in an INCREDIBLY small minority.

I agree. Powell’s writing is often obsessed with “black” men having sexual relationships with women who are lighter skinned than they are. In doing so, she presents a valuable example of racism and sexism. Black men are only after sex with near-white women. The women, on the other hand, are powerless. They’re choice to engage in adult, consenting relationships is impossible. They are all victims of dark-skinned men. Powell also adheres to a phenotypical racist view. She demonizes dark-skinned me as other, even though these men may be mixed-raced but have largely African phenotypes.

Not true about the paper bag era. It was practiced in many black communities. I was appalled reading where it was practiced in a Baptist church in St. Louis, MO. If a black, married couple were different skin tones they sat on opposite sides of the church. Don’t say it can’t be historically verified because it can. I even saw it as part of black history section of a black newspaper too and the era in which it happened.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT BELIEVE
or buy into the myths and THE LIES that so many
of THE ‘MILITANTS” (and their many ‘uninformed
blind-followers and parrots’) found in various levels
and ranks of The Mixed-Race/Multiracial Movement
have continually SPREAD (for decades) ABOUT the
various civil-rights organizations like THE NAACP.
.
Again, my advice for anyone who truly supports the
Mixed-Race / Multiracial Movement is to NOT ever
believe the LIES — (that so many militants that have
been found within the various ranks and levels of
the Mixed-Race / Multiracial Movement continue
to spread) — which is that NAACP ever even once
(as an ‘organization’) worked to fight “against” having
the ‘Multiracial Box’ added to U.S. government forms.

As I have shown in multiple online postings —
this false accusation that has been so arrogantly
(and wrongfully) laid that the feet of that
particular group — is just simply NOT true.

In fact, objective research has repeatedly proven that
‘the majority’ of the members (and leadership) of the
NAACP (which is NOT even a ‘black’ organization,
by the way — but rather is a ‘multiracial’ organization
that works to help people of ‘any’ category of “race”,
including that of ‘multiracial’ — and never even had a
“black”-categorized person in a position of leadership
until the late 1950s) FULLY-SUPPORTED the idea of
a ‘Multiracial Box’ being added to government forms.

THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS THAT — what actually
angered many ‘Militants’ (and caused them to choose to spread
these LIES about the NAACP) is that – during the time that
the ‘Multiracial Box’ was being taken into consideration by
the U.S. Government, the NAACP just happened to make
the very MINOR request that the ‘historical’ OPTION for
Multiracial / Mixed-Race people CONTINUE to be able to
“CHECK ALL that Apply” ‘ALSO REMAIN on the forms.

The rationale behind the request was that – leaving said ‘historical’
OPTION would 1) in no way, have “deleted” a person’s laying
claim to their ‘multiracial’ status – WHILE AT THE SAME TIME
— it would 2) also have simply allowed the person to ‘clarify’
as to if their ‘of-color’ ancestry was ‘asian’, ‘native’, ‘black’, etc.
(which is quite helpful for tracking issues of ‘discrimination’).

IN REALITY — the groups that actually did fight the strongest
AGAINST the ‘Multiracial Box’ being added to U.S. government
forms WERE actually LATINO-based (ex. The National Council
of ‘La Raza’, etc.) and were also ASIAN-based (ex. The National
Coalition for an Accurate Count of Asian Pacific Americans, etc.)
.
Various individuals and members of certain organizations
(ex. ‘Project-Race’ – which had made it very clear in the past
that it did NOT support the idea of the people who were of
a lineage that was ‘Multi-Generational Multiracially-Mixed /
MGM-Mixed being seen or included as being ‘Mixed-Race’
and has remained oddly silent on the issue in the face of the
apt criticism received from many since then) — KNOW full-well
that they are LYING when they FALSELY accuse the NAACP
organization of having “fought against” the ‘Multiracial Box’.
.
Due to their hypocritical-contempt for the various organizations
that support the rights of every American citizen (including the
ones that are Black, “black”-categorized or “black”-identified) –
however — they continue to spread their lies about the NAACP
group — while, (in an attempt to “kiss-up” to the many various
‘Latino’ organizations — who, by the way, do NOT ‘accept’ them
in the least bit) also continuing to remain silent about the FACT
that it was actually LA RAZA (which is a ‘Latino’ group) –
and NOT the NAACP (which is a ‘multiracial’, and is not
a ‘black’, group) — that had ‘LED the biggest and strongest
PUSH’ in fighting AGAINST having a ‘Multiracial Box’
being added as an option to the U.S. government forms.

In addition, INSTEAD OF these ‘Militants’ in The Movement
showing any slight measure of ‘gratitude’ to the many, many,
many Black; “black”-categorized and black”-identified groups
and individuals (ex. Rep. John Conyers — an member of the
‘Ethnic’ group that is currently referred to by the misnomer
of ‘African-American’ — who, along with his supporters in
‘The national black caucus’ and the ‘naacp’ — actually led the
push in getting the ‘Multiracial Box’ passed) that were THE
IMPETUS in getting the ‘Multiracial Box’ passed — these
‘Militants’, instead, quite PURPOSELY choose to BOTH
‘piss on the reputations’ of these “blacks” AND also quite
purposely ‘mislead the public’ about all of the help and
support that so many of the “black” people in the U.S.
have provided for decades to Mixed-Race / Multiracial
Movement (and, this was all provided by these “black”
people with barely an ounce of gratitude and / or even
an acknowledgement, if any at all, ever expressed by
The Movement toward these “black” people, in return).
.
And, in my humble opinion, such behavior on the part of
these ‘Militants’ (and their ‘blind-followers’ as well as their
‘complicity of silence’-supporters) is JUST very WRONG,
UNETHICAL, IMMORAL & a LIE – and is also a deceit
of which I choose to not, in any way, be a part in my well
known support of the Mixed-Race / Multiracial Movement.
.
Thank you for your time; feel free to forward or share
this memo with those who may find it’s content to be
of interest; and please also feel free to contact me
at anytime with any comments or questions.
.
— AllPeople (AP) Gifts
Email: soaptalk@hotmail.com
soaptalk AT hotmail DOT com
.
YT Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/APGifts
FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/allpeople.gifts
Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/#!/AllPeopleGifts
Sites: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/generation-mixed/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mgm-mixed/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fgm-mixed/